Collections
The Beneski Museum of Natural History houses collections and exhibits that include vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, minerals and other geologic specimens, and anthropological material. The museum contains three floors of exhibits and over 1,700 specimens on display. It is home to the world's largest collection of dinosaur tracks, the Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet, which dates from the 1850s.
Specimens have been collected since the 1830s from local areas and around the world. Notable collectors include Edward Hitchcock, Charles Shepard, Amherst College Class of 1824, and Frederick Loomis, Amherst professor in the early 20th century.
The first floor showcases large Ice Age mammals, including a mastodon uncovered by Shepard in 1869 and a mammoth found by Loomis in 1913. This floor also has an exhibit on the evolution of the horse in North America. The second floor holds a variety of invertebrates, trace fossils, minerals, and exhibits on local geology. Mounted specimens and pull-out drawers on both these floors are arranged to chronicle evolution and ecology. The basement houses the ichnology collection along with dinosaur skeletons.
Read more about this topic: Amherst College Museum Of Natural History
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